trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/utd6uppxtdv3da-v0tj-za2 content esgSubNav
In This List

South African court rules out preventing Bank of Baroda from shutting local ops

Podcast

Street Talk Episode 87

Blog

A New Dawn for European Bank M&A Top 5 Trends

Blog

Insight Weekly: US banks' loan growth; record share buybacks; utility M&A outlook

Blog

Banking Essentials Newsletter 2021: December Edition


South African court rules out preventing Bank of Baroda from shutting local ops

The High Court in Pretoria, South Africa has dismissed an application brought by 19 companies linked to the controversial Gupta family to prevent India's Bank of Baroda from shutting down its South African operations, Eyewitness News reported.

Judge Ntendeya Mavundla ruled that the Indian lender's right to trade or not trumps any right that the applicants may have and that it could not interfere with the bank's decision to exit the South African market.

Furthermore, the South African court added that local lender Nedbank Ltd. had already ended its relationship with Bank of Baroda, which used the former's infrastructure to operate, and that it could not force the two banks to restore the infrastructure.

The 19 companies, including Optimum Coal Mines and Sahara Computers, had filed the application with the court in February and could now find themselves in a tight position financially following the court's ruling, Eyewitness News said.

Bank of Baroda is still facing a criminal complaint from the Democratic Alliance party in South Africa over allegations that the Indian lender assisted former South African President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family launder money out of the country.